Writing with Us

The Online MFA in Creative Writing

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is proud to offer a fully online Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. Writers can complete the entire degree from anywhere in the world, as there is no residency requirement. This is the only one of its kind.

Our goal is to prepare serious writers for publishing and teaching careers. The degree plan consists of 48 hours of coursework (14 courses) followed by 6 hours of thesis during which the student completes a publishable manuscript in poetry or fiction.

We believe that the excellent reputation of an MFA program is not created by marketing or clever campaigns, but by the students it graduates.

Therefore, our primary goal is to assist excellent writers in their artistic and intellectual development.

If you leave with an MFA degree from our program, you will have a book ready for submission to publishers.

Therefore, the primary criterion for admission is a writing sample in either fiction or poetry. We accept that not every writer who applies is right for us, but because we have no residency requirements, we do not have a limited or fixed number of writers we can accept each year. If you’re good at what you do, we want you to study with us.

We look for writers with distinctive or developing voices, a sense of cultural or social awareness, and a yearning to expand one’s use of the craft.

We encourage but do not favor undergraduate degrees in Creative Writing or English. Our students and graduates have had bachelor’s degrees in various fields, from physics to theater.

We favor excellent writing.

Some of our applicants are establishing themselves as writers, some of them with books already published, but they need the MFA degree to advance in their teaching careers. Whatever level you find yourself at, whether one who has always wanted to be a writer or one who already is a writer and needs the degree, we welcome your work.

We offer a workshop-heavy MFA, but we believe in the necessity of a background in theory and form. Our candidates enjoy a wide variety of graduate courses in literature, from the “Form of the Short Story” to “Asian American Poetry.”